The last night's incident had passed, the noble lay dead, and the rebels crucified outside the capital. Maximus now stood before the Daimyo, his left hand holding his right, and his head down facing the floor, as is customary while standing before kings and the like. They were present in the court, but it was empty, except for Maximus and the Daimyo. The latter had a calm but pleased demeanor, while Maximus remained indifferent.
It was an uncanny silence, as both men expected the other to speak, but the Daimyo soon broke this,
"Julius Maximus, a skilled shinobi of course. I am indebted to you for saving my life." Maximus remained calm and solemnly replied,
"It was my duty lord, to guard you." The Daimyo gave a small smile, and replied,
"Hm, yes. But again, I owe you. And it is not myself to leave a favor unpaid." Maximus kept his head down, only rolling his eyes upwards to see the Daimyo.
The latter now motioned his hand, and a servant entered the chamber. He held a large tray in his hand, and his head was tilted down. Maximus lifts his head to finally see it, the servant is carrying a large gold tray, draped with cloth, and something tucking from beneath it. The Daimyo presents the tray to Maximus, and smoothly lifts the cloth, to reveal a fine katana, its scabbard embroidered with bright colors and golden threads, a small bunch of red hair hanging down from one end of the handle. It was as much a weapon as an art piece, delicately created with precision and skill.
The Daimyo carefully lifted it, and started speaking with a satisfactory smile,
"I can easily reward you with silver or coin, but money comes and goes. Please accept this blade as a gift, a present to last a lifetime."
Maximus lightly bowed and took the blade from the Daimyo. Putting it back in its sheath, he bowed again and held it aside with one hand. The Daimyo smiled and thumped Maximus on the shoulder,
"I appreciate that you like this. I suppose it is also time you and your comrades depart?" Maximus looked up for an instant, and replied with a smile,
"Yes, sir. I have been honored to receive this gift."
The Daimyo smiled back, gave a slight courteous bow, and pointed to the main entrance into the chamber. Maximus adjusted the newly acquired weapon and walked out of the courtroom.
Central Colosseum, forest of death
Hiruzen's mood was tense but impressed at the same time. He was in his Hokage robes, smoking a cigar, while two Jonin stood on either side of him. He was standing on a balcony-like platform, and before him was a rectangular arena, recently a witness to fights between the next generation of shinobi. This year's participants were extremely skilled, extraordinary to say the least, but they couldn't let so many pass so easily, especially in an international exam. So they organized a preliminary stage after the second round, and the remaining contestants were only half the numbers before.
The recent battle had left the battleground rather damaged, as well as the participants. Gaara, the Kazekage's third-born, had fought with Rock Lee, an apprentice of Might Guy. Both student and tutor were rather similar, unable to utilize chakra, but unmatched in pure physical force. Rock Lee had the upper hand in the battle, even more so with the forbidden gates technique he unlocked, yet that was the very thing that caused him to lose. The power of the gates faded in a while, and that left Lee's legs paralyzed, and him severely injured. Gaara was allowed to proceed, to contend in the final round with Sasuke Uchiha, Fugaku's remaining 'loyal' son. The other participants also showed commendable strength, especially Neji Hyuga, Hiyashi's nephew, and Naruto Uzumaki, who had learned a powerful defensive jutsu using Earth chakra.
Hiruzen took a puff and turned to face the Kazekage, who was uncannily staring at the participants.
"Skilled, aren't they?" Hiruzen commented with a sword, the Kazekage agreed,
"Absolutely. I am thoroughly impressed by the next generation of Konoha ninjas, especially the Uchiha and Neji boys." Hiruzen agreed Sasuke was to be the next clan head on his father's death, it was expected of him to outperform his brother. Diverging the topic, Hiruzen spoke again,
"There's a quite new village on the political map, the Mountain village." The Kazekage rolled his eyes to meet Hiruzen's, and slightly eerily replied,
"Indeed. I've heard it was formed by defectors from Iwa and a rebellious son of the late Earth Daimyo. They appear quite mysterious to me." Hiruzen took another puff and retained his calm attitude,
"Hm, we've not got much information on them. It is cause for suspicion." The Kazekage dryly chuckled and replied,
"Suspicion is the first step towards enmity, lord Hokage. So let us leave these ideas to the back of our heads, and work towards peace." Hiruzen smiled, but there was slight skepticism in his mind. The Kazekage's manner of speaking sounded a bit familiar, but in the end, the Hokage just shrugged it off.
"Indeed, lord Kazekage, may this peace be maintained for eternity." The Kazekage seemed to agree, but something caught Hiruzen's eye. It was only for a slight second or nothing at all, but the Kazekage's eyes looked like a snake's slashed pupils.
Fields outside Byzantium
It was a sunny June afternoon, the sun shone bright in the sky, and everyone was drenched in sweat. With the green meadows, wildflowers, towering city walls in the distance, and the forest beyond, these fields were usually quiet. Today, the harmony was interrupted by a couple hundred men, who seemed to be on target practice. There were human-sized targets stuffed with hay or sand, planted about 70-130 meters away, and the soldiers practiced volleys on the targets, with muskets and bows. It was practically a military drill. But the notable one among them was the governor himself, only wearing his lower clothing, bareback, and practicing arrow shots.
His sequence was smooth, reflecting years of experience, drawing the arrow from the quiver, pulling the string, and loosening the projectile to go full speed and plunge itself on the targets. This was nothing easy, as not only did you have to aim, but a usual war bow took substantial strength to fully draw. After a few more shots, Marcus stopped, his breath heavy, and glanced at the other soldiers.
He was shooting for fun, but these soldiers were executing a serious drill. A new tactic back home on the mainland, as Severus said. Three lines of men, firing in volleys, one line fired as the others reloaded, and vice versa. The guns were very effective but took an awful while to reload, and there wasn't any replacement for that, except this three-line tactic. Large standing shields were placed before the soldiers to cover them, large metal ones that could be planted on the ground; these were large enough to cover most of the body, except the upper chest and above. As the current row was finished firing, they crouched and retreated to the back, while the second row got up and started firing. It was effective, but took extensive training and drills to master effectively.
As Marcus continued to observe his soldiers, one of them from the back approached him,
"Sir?" Marcus turned with a questioning glance,
"Hm?" The soldier takes out a folded piece of paper from his pocket, and gently hands it over to Marcus,
"A letter addressed to you, sir." Marcus took the parchment from the soldier's hand, and questioned,
"Couldn't this wait?" The soldier remained indifferent and replied,
"The bearer said, you will be very pleased to receive it." Marcus scoffed lightly and unfolded the paper,
"Well then, let's see it." The soldier quickly left, and Marcus was left reading the letter with the gunshots in the background. As he ran his eyes over the text, his face lit up with satisfaction. The rebels had been completely eradicated, and, most of the samurai class had also been uprooted, with suspicions caused due to the rebellion, almost all the civilian population had been completely disarmed, the weapons confiscated and smiths only allowed to forge more on government permission. Excellent, a smile spread across his face.
Marcus folded the paper back into its former shape and then tossed it into a nearby bonfire. Now, the only thing remaining was to get rid of these figurehead Daimyos, they had no real power, but the influence they held was tremendous. As the letter had informed, the rebels from the Land of Jungles had attempted to proclaim an illegitimate son of the last Jungle Daimyo the next ruler, an influential figure to rally behind for the rebels. Such a thing mustn't happen again, the Daimyo will be ousted from the capitals and forced to, advised to retire in an isolated manor house. This little affair hadn't been much to the Romans really, but antagonizing the locals was far from what they desired, and precautious steps must be taken to ensure that doesn't happen.
Konoha
Hayato casually walked down the bustling village streets, his hands folded behind his head. The shopkeepers and civilians were clamoring all around, an unintelligible mass of sounds and shouting. It was midday, and Hayato was lightly sweating. As he continued on his path, he could see a group of chunin gathered in one of the alleyways, seemingly jeering and laughing.
Out of curiosity, he stood behind the fray and craned his neck to look at what was going on. The chunins were teasing, or bullying, a boy around the same age as them, around 14. However, he was rather shorter than average, and his expressions were laughable. One of the chunin boys shouldered to the front and pushed the boy roughly to the wall. As Hayato watched this, he quickly called the chunin out, sensing trouble,
"You know, such behavior can get you demoted." The boys turned, and one of them smirked,
"And? Who the fuck are you?" Hayato seemed annoyed by his behavior, and replied,
"I am serious, leave him alone." The boy who had spoken before now walked forward, and came face to face with Hayato,
"What if we don't? What are you gonna do?" Hayato remained silent, as both the boy and him eyed each other's souls. The guy had quite the nerve, he was visibly smaller than Hayato and had to look up to meet eyes.
The chunin tried to intimidate Hayato, but failed (partly due to his short height), sensing this, he opted for violence, a bad idea. He swung a punch, but that was swiftly dodged by Hayato who stepped aside, rolled on his ball joint above the heel, grabbing the teen by his left arm and crashing him onto the nearby wall. He shrieked and groaned in pain. Upon turning, blood was gushing from his nasal cavity, albeit not much. The injuries weren't serious, but enough to force the boy to back out. Trying to keep the blood inside, the boy brisked aside, and quickly left the alleyway, his friends followed soon.
Hayato now turned to face the boy, who he could see now. About 14, spiky brunette hair, a short height, lean, a protective demeanor, and wearing the chunin uniform.
"You okay man?" Hayato folded his arms and looked at the boy with a questioning glance, the latter replied while easing his stance,
"Yeah, thanks for your help," Hayato replied with a welcoming humph, and posed another question,
"Why were they teasing you, short height?" The boy dusted his sleeves and replied,
"Perhaps," Hayato nodded, and continued,
"Haven't seen you around here, where are you from?" The boy now met Hayato's eyes and replied in a friendly manner,
"Hitsuma, Southern Land of Fire." Hayato gave a deep sigh, it was understandable now.
Konoha had established a few basic ninja academies inside some of the great cities of the Land of Fire, to draw more skilled shinobi and manpower. The shinobi studied and served in their hometown, and were called to the village only if they were skilled enough, or a specific task. This boy must be a notable shinobi if the higher-ups bothered to call him here.
But that also explained the bullies. These guys in the main village thought of themselves above these 'dirty civilians', especially those from clan backgrounds, who saw these prodigies as 'mudbloods', quite a stupid and discriminatory system.
"By the way, name's Shigehira, you?" The boy finally decided on formalities, and started, Hayato replied,
"Hayato Musashi, good to see you." The boy replied with a smile. Hayato was yet more curious, this boy didn't seem the warrior type, like the other shinobi here, who had a string of shinobi ancestors to give them 'military motivation'.
"Do you belong to a clan?" Hayato bluntly questioned, the boy ended his smile but maintained a light-hearted manner,
"No, my father's a merchant. He wanted me to take care of the family business, but guess what? I always dreamt of being a shinobi, and here I am, proving my dad wrong. Cool right?" Hayato nodded and closed his eyes for a moment, this boy seemed simple and naïve in his way of talking, like Naruko's brother, but was talented, proven by his presence here. Hayato had inquired all he wanted, and besides he was getting late for where he intended to go, so bid farewell,
"Well then, Shigehira, may you have a better time in the village. You can always tell your Jonin instructor if they attack you again, he will make sure they are suspended, or demoted." The boy smiled again and replied in a friendly manner,
"Thanks for the tip, I'll make sure to do that."
Hayato quietly turned and left the alleyway, not looking back and continuing on his way.